


I Missed You (Before I Even Knew You)

by LonelyThursday



Series: Newsies Reincarnated [2]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Basically, Established Relationship, M/M, Modern Era, Reincarnation, Trans Male Character, trans mush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LonelyThursday/pseuds/LonelyThursday
Summary: Louis is a man of habit; he gets up, he goes to school, he goes home, he ignores how much he hates his parents, and then he repeats.Not today though. No, today the football team had to go and be in the library, but this change in schedule might just be the best thing to ever happen to him.This is part of my reincarnation AU, but you don't need to read the others if you just want to get your Blush fill
Relationships: Kid Blink/Mush Meyers
Series: Newsies Reincarnated [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534421
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	I Missed You (Before I Even Knew You)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope everyone's been doing well, feel free to hit me up on tumblr @lonely-thursday if you need someone to talk to (i'm not great at talking to people but I can send you pics of my cat)
> 
> I've been having trouble finishing anything recently so I'm very happy that I actually finfished this :)

Louis is a man of habit. He wakes up at six a.m. every week day, he showers for ten minutes, puts on his school uniform, eats a cup of yogurt for breakfast, makes himself a ham and cheese sandwich, and is out the door and on his way to school by six forty-five. At school, Louis doesn’t talk to anyone (he doesn’t have friends, doesn’t need them, but what he _does_ have is this girl who eats lunch at the same table as him every day, she’s not really his friend, but if pressed he’d say she is, and he thinks that she would say the same). Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he’s got fencing lessons after school (he doesn’t talk to anyone there either), and on Fridays he has chess club, on Mondays and Wednesdays he goes to the library, and every day he returns to his home at six p.m. At six thirty he and his parents have their obligatory family dinner where they all pretend to care about each other, and he’s able to retire to his room for the night by seven p.m. 

Weekends are a different story. There’s less structure, but they’re generally filled with attending stuffy parties that his parents make him go to so that they can show off how ‘handsome’ and ‘well behaved’ their son is, and ‘wouldn’t he make an excellent husband one day?’ Sometimes the girl from lunch is at the parties, and the two of them will stand next to each other as they lean against the wall and try to set people on fire with only their minds. They never talk, but it’s an unspoken understanding that that’s what they’re doing (and yeah, maybe she _is_ his friend, but shut up about it).

Louis enjoys weekdays more. He prefers learning and fencing to schmoozing and hobnobbing any day. 

His current problem is this: the football team is in the library. It’s Wednesday, his usual library day, and the _football_ team is in the _library._ It’s not that he has a particular beef with the football team, or rather, it’s not like they have a beef with him. They’re loud, and disruptive, so he hates them. If they’re in the library, then he’ll never get any work done. 

Leaving the library, Louis decides to try the park. Maybe, if he’s lucky, there’ll be a nice quiet space for him to work. 

He’s not so lucky. The park is full of people (of course it is, it’s a nice spring day), and no matter what spots Louis looks at, there’s people there. He’s about to quit and just go home, when someone turns the corner around the snack shack and walks right into him. 

Louis stumbles back a few steps from the impact, and the guy that walked into him does the same. Louis is about to yell at them for not looking where they’re going, but when he finally catches sight of the guy’s face, he freezes. 

He knows that face. 

The guy’s jaw is a little less sharp, his shoulders less broad, and he’s missing at least two inches of height, but Louis _knows_ him. He’s _familiar._

“Mush?” Visions- memories- hallucinations- _something_ bursts forth in Louis- Kid Blink- Louis’ mind, causing him to stumble forward into Mush- the guy- a stranger- _Mush._

“Louis!” 

Mush catches him with an arm around his waist, and Blink buries his face in Mush’s shoulder. A wave of familiarity washes over him. He feels like he’s _home._

“C’mon,” Mush hikes one of Blink’s arms around his shoulder. “Let's get you sitting down.”

Blink feels Mush start to drag him forward, but he doesn’t dare open his eyes. Memories continue to pour into his mind, he can see Mush as he was _before,_ dragging him around a New York that’s so _different_ from the one he lives in _now._

Mush is the same though. He looks different but he feels the same. 

Mush, who he loves more than anyone else in the world. Mush, who’s always got time to help his friends out. Mush, who he’d follow to the ends of the earth, and would follow him in return. Mush, who he’d lost far too early in life… or did Mush lose _him?_

The thought brings Blink- Louis- Blink back to himself. He and Mush are sitting under a tree, Mush still has an arm around his waist, and Blink still has his face buried in Mush’s shoulder. He’s not sure how long he’s been lost in his own head, but judging by the shadows on the ground, it’s been a good two hours, at _least._

Blink lets out a groan, and feels Mush’s arm tighten around him. 

“Hey, Blink,” Mush says quietly, mindful of Blink’s headache. “You back?”

“Let me just say, with all honesty, from the bottom of my heart, what the _fuck_ is this shit.”

“Yeah,” Mush laughs. “You’re back. How’re you feeling?”

“Like a bus ran over my head,” Blink grumbles, adjusting his position so that he can wrap both arms around Mush while keeping his head on his shoulder. 

Mush laughs again and brings his free hand up to card his fingers through Blink’s hair. “Missed you, Louis.”

“Yeah,” Blink replies, feeling tears well up in his eyes, though he’s not entirely sure why. “I would’ve missed you too, if I’d known you’d been out there.”

“Yeah,” Mush hums. “Reincarnation is weird.”

“You say that like you’re some sorta expert.”

“Well maybe I is, or maybe I ain’t,” Mush says, putting on his best 1890’s accent before reverting back to his modern accent. “No, but seriously, I’ve had these memories for two years, and I’ve spent that time doing my research. It’s hard to find credible sources for this sort of thing but I think-”

“Two years?” Blink interrupts suddenly, pulling back as far as he can without letting go of Mush so that he can look him in the eye. He can't even comprehend living that long with these memories in his head without anyone to talk about them with, unless- “Do you know anyone else from back then?”

“I know Elmer,” Mush answers easily, Blink tries to hide a scowl, but Mush must see it anyway because he laughs again before pressing a quick kiss onto Blink’s cheek. Blink’s whole face goes red, and Mush continues. “He doesn’t remember, but I still know him. When I _remembered,_ I thought ‘this must have been a dream or something’, because Elmer was there, but you know how all the faces you’ve seen in dreams are people you’ve actually seen when you’re awake?” Blink nods. “Well,” Mush blushes a little. “Then I figured it couldn’t be a dream, because I would have remembered seeing you before.”

“Sap,” Blink teases, leaning in for a kiss that Mush happily gives him. “So what’s your life like now? Not selling newspapers from sunup to sundown I assume.”

“No, nothing like that,” Mush replies. “I dunno, it’s nothing special, I live with my aunt, I go to public school, Elmer Kasprzak is my best friend, even if they don’t _remember_ yet.” Mush shrugs. “But I want to hear about _you,_ Mr. Private-school!” Mush taps the school crest sewn into the breast of Blink’s school blazer. 

Blink blushes again and bats Mush’s hand away. “I- uh… I might be… rich?”

It’s never been a fact that had embarrassed him before, but saying it now, to Mush, on the heels of _remembering_ their shared poverty in the _past…_ he feels guilty for what he has now. He’s done nothing to earn it in this life other than tolerate his parents. Why should he be rich now when his friends are not? 

Wait

Friends!

“I’m friends with Sniper!” He blurts out. 

Mush looks a little concerned at the sudden change in tone. “Um, does he remember?”

“I don’t know,” Blink confesses. “She’s- I mean- we’ve never _talked.”_

“You’re friends… but you don’t talk?” Mush asks slowly. Blink blushes yet again, he hadn’t realized how bad at life he was until now. 

“We have uh… a mutual understanding?” Mush gives Blink a look telling him to go on, so Blink continues with his sad explanation of his only friend. “We uh, eat lunch together in silence, and uh, when we’re at the same parties we stand together in silence.”

“I can’t tell if that’s sad,” says Mush with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “Or if that’s completely on-brand Kid Blink and Sniper.”

Blink pouts and Mush presses apologetic kisses to his cheeks and nose before placing one last kiss on his lips. Blink nods, satisfied, and Mush laughs. 

“So tell me Mushy,” Blink says, changing the subject off of himself. “How’d you _remember?”_

“Oh… well,” Mush is suddenly avoiding eye contact. 

“Hey,” Blink leans forward so that he can rest their foreheads together. “It’s just me.”

“I’m trans,” Mush whispers so quietly Blink can barely hear him, but he smiles encouragingly. Mush seems to gain some confidence because he becomes a little louder with every word. “And for my birthday two years ago, my aunt bought me my first binder. I was admiring myself in a mirror when I decided to try on this newsboy cap that Elmer had gotten me, and when I put it on I guess I just _remembered_ myself,” Mush trails off with a small smile. “When my aunt found me groaning on the floor she thought that the binder was hurting me. I had to explain that the headache had nothing to do with the binder.”

Blink presses a kiss into Mush’s cheek. One kiss turns into two, which turns into Mush connecting their lips, which turns into making out in the middle of the park. Blink’s missed this, he didn’t even remember Mush until he saw him, but he’s still missed him; he can’t imagine having two years of remembering Mush, but not being able to hold him. 

The moment is interrupted by Blink’s phone ringing. He pulls away with a groan, fishing around his school bag for his phone. 

It’s his mother calling. Of course it is. She must have some sort of spidey-sense that tells her when her son is being a disappointment. Blink leans even farther back and answers the phone. 

“Hello, mother,” he says in an emotionless voice, so different from how he’d been talking that Mush startles. 

_“It’s nearly six-thirty, Louis. Where are you?”_ His mother’s shrill voice comes through the speakers. Is it really so late? Blink must have lost track of more time than he’d realized. 

“I’m sorry, Mother. I was working on a project for school and I lost track of time.” He lies. Mush gives him a look, but doesn’t say anything. 

_“Are you done with your project? You had better be keeping your grades up young man.”_

“I’m almost done, and my grades are perfect, I’ll head home once I’ve finished.”

_“See that you do.”_ His mother hangs without waiting for a reply. 

“Yes, mother,” Blink says, even though the line is dead. “Sorry Mush, I think I’ve gotta leave soon.”

“It’s okay, Blink. It _is_ getting late; my aunt might start worrying soon.” Mush hefts himself to his feet before offering Blink a hand up. “Can I see you tomorrow?”

“I can’t,” Blink sighs. “I have fencing, and my parents will _definitely_ know if I skip, but I can see you on Friday, I have chess club, but I can see you after.”

Mush is shaking his head before Blink even finishes. “I can’t on Friday, I have swing dance, but,” Mush says quickly, hating the way Blink’s face fell. “I can give you my number, and I’ll text you all the time.”

“Thanks, Mushy.”

Blink barely registers the walk home, or the dinner he eats by himself once he gets there, all he can think about is Mush. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be longer, but I decided to just give Sniper her own fic instead


End file.
